Saturday, January 18, 2014

Kemps Black Jack Cherry Frozen Yogurt

Wow.... over three years since a Kemps review... my word how time has passed. They make a lot of products in the midwest, but in my defense, the only Kemps products around me are frozen yogurts, and it's rare for me to see anything beyond a handful of standard flavors. Kemps had pretty much passed out of my radar until I was reading up on last year's ice cream sales. Apparently the $350 million froyo market was up 21% last year, led by store brands, healthy choice (really??), Ben & Jerry's, and then Kemps at almost $30 million in sales [reference, though I think Dreyers/Edys should be in there] . Keeping in mind that US ice cream sales are at $5.5 billion with another $4.2b for novelties, so 30 mil is a small number, but I still feel like I should try something by them.... and then pawn it off on my wife.

Kemp's Black Jack Cherry Low Fat Frozen Yogurt

(one of those descriptionless flavors)

Yeah, my wife kind of went "whoa" with the first bite, but pressed on and was ok with her treat. I took my first bite and had a similar reaction... but I too pressed on. See, this isn't my beloved cherry vanilla ice cream, no, this is a much different beast. I only took a handful of bites on that first scooping, but I think something dawned on me during the second scoop.

See, if you called this cherry coke sherbet or something, I'd be like "whoa, that's kind of weird... but familiar". Not only is there no yogurt tang or tartness of other brands, but there's really not a strong milky quality to it either. The bite from the cherries has invaded every scoop of froyo. It's... well, it's different, very different. It's unexpected, but hey, the label says black jack cherry, not cherry vanilla, so it is what it is.

Do I like this? I honestly don't know, but I will admit part of me is intrigued by this strange base. I mean, you can only complain so much when there's only 15 calories from fat per serving. You can down mass quantities of this one with minimal guilt. I'm definitely curious what the cherry fans think of this one.